Languages of Cameroon

Republic of Cameroon. Formerly French Cameroun and British Cameroons. 17,795,000. National or official languages: English, French. Literacy rate: 63.4%, including 75% males, 52.1% females (Encyclopedia Britannica 1995). Immigrant languages: Efai (890). Information mainly from J. Bendor-Samuel and Hartell 1989; R. Breton 1991; SIL 1973–2003. Blind population: 15,630 (1982 WCE). The number of individual languages listed for Cameroon is 286. Of those, 278 are living languages, 3 are second languages without mother-tongue speakers, and 5 have no known speakers.